Prompt: Of Man, Lamia, and Goddesses (P2)

Summary: In a parallel universe much like our own, a series of divine mishaps creature a world where lamia replace human females as the eternal partners for men. What follows is a series of vignettes of how this world evolved over time. Commissioned by downhillrabbit6.1 for the month of July 2022.

[Story Listing]

[FIRST PART]

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Part 2 (Jul '22)

6th century BCE

The community was in an uproar. The people of this isolated village had enjoyed relative peace, apart from the concentrations of cities from which kingdoms, still in their infancy, began to develop. The plains were calm, the soil abundant, and the grasslands an ample source of food for livestock.

It was troubling, then, that livestock was disappearing at a concerning rate. These animals were relied upon for wool, for sustenance, for hunting. Discontent was brewing between the people out on the frontiers, with each person turning venomous looks to their neighbours as they suspected one another of treachery.

A farmer, Cain, was not troubled by this frenzy however. He knew well what malady had befallen the village. He was a shifty, selfish sort, and clever at that. As he tended to his fields, he spotted an interloper in his midst: a woman, with the lower body of a serpent, camouflaging herself amidst another farmer's crops to stalk an errant sheep for a meal.

Cain initially thought little of this interloper. It wasn't his crops she was after. Perhaps she would satisfy herself on the vermin that targeted his crops as well. Besides that, if other sources of food simply disappeared, others would come to rely on him. He would be a pillar of the community, a great leader, a desirable partner.

He held his tongue as the predatorial woman stole away with sheep after sheep. It wasn't as if anyone else in the village would believe him if he was straightforward. He kept his head down and went tending to the crops.

Cain had his own issues to tend to. He had his eye on a fair maiden, Lydia. She was a marvelous woman, terribly naive, with a pretty face and enchanting black hair.

But Lydia had no eyes for him... only for that infuriating shepherd, Abel, whose sheep offered wool for the maiden to prepare clothing. As Cain's longing grew, he formulated a dastardly plan.

He made a note of the snake woman's hunting territory and flagged Abel, telling him that his sheep had wandered off in that direction. Abel, indeed thankful for Cain's help, hurried to collect his sheep. After that day, the shepherd was never seen again. The village stirred, gossiping about the man's sudden, unannounced disappearance... and Cain hid a self-satisfied grin.

He would come to be relied upon by the village, his crops yielding delicious sweet fruits, which he could ferment into wine. He was, in the end, able to woo Lydia, and they became partners, looking to mingle, raise their own family, and prosper.

Cain delighted in his new fortunes: a wife who doted upon him, a village that practically worshipped him, and the sweet nectar of fermented juice that entranced him so nicely. He drank to his spirits and to his health, and he did so frequently, treating his wife as a trophy of his conquest. as a mountain to climb.

One night he had a little too much to drink, and he bedded his wife in the usual manner. They thrashed about in bed, making quite a racket. His wife seemed especially into it, from all the screaming. He laughed, drank to their help, and napped for a spell.

The following morning, he leaned over to stroke his wife's hair, drinking in the smell of sweet grapes from a night of passionate indulgence. Through his blurry vision, he didn't notice right away that something was off. There was an additional heftiness pressing against his buxom. The hair was longer, mangled, wild, a stark shade of red.

His hand lowered to feel the length of his beautiful wife, looking to grope her as the beautiful piece of meat she was. But something was off... the working parts were not where they were supposed to be. Her pear-shaped hips felt strangely hard and marbled. And her belly seemed terribly distended. He tsked to himself, admonishing her for indulging on too much of his special product.

The woman pressed closer to Cain, wrapping her arms around his chest. Her head rose, tilting slightly as she looked directly into Cain's eyes. Her eyes had a frightening characteristic to them, slit like a serpent, her irises golden as if they exuded an otherworldly power.

Cain, his buzz wearing off, sobered up in a hurry. This wasn't his wife. Was this even his bed?

Alas, his moment to escape had eluded him as a massive snake tail slithered forward to wrap around him. She rolled over, pressing herself to his side. Cain could feel a distinct, hard lump in her oversized belly; it stretched uncomfortably as if the snake woman harboured a well-overdue child.

Cain struggled to get away as the snake woman pulled him closer, her serpentine tongue brushing against his sweat-covered neck. It was long, sinuous, forked at the end... truly a demonic thing.

The snake woman rolled over on top of him, the weight of her massive body pinning him down, a slit near her hips opening up to accept his seed. Cain's expression paled as he found himself trapped by the woman, and coerced into intercourse, their bodies pressing together. The woman was needy, forceful, predatory and wild, speaking in coarse utterances, as if she didn't know their common language well at all.

Her stomach gurgled, and her serpentine mouth unhinged, begging for food. Cain, forced to obliged, reached for a bowl of fruit. He tenderly deposited an apple into her waiting map, watching it slide down her neck, into her waiting gut. Her stomach quivered, the massive lump, looking the size of a human adult, quavered.

The grim realization dawned upon Cain. This snake woman, this lamia... she was the same one that disappeared the meddlesome Abel away. But it wasn't Abel she wanted. She had been following Cain for some time, and in the end, was spurred to action when he had taken on a wife of his own... a predatory act of intrinsic jealousy.

The snake woman... devoured his wife whole. And now she lay at his side, the new master of the household, eager to be doted upon and pampered. Cain, trapped in the coils of her tail, would disappear into the night, away from the village with his new partner...

This would be the foundation of tales to come, of lamia pursuing male lovers for their own desires, and supplanting human females in the process. Such a relationship, then, was stunning, and the story of Cain and Abel was originally something of a cautionary tale. But as history advanced in a strange direction, inked by the will of a malevolent goddess, the world over would see a fundamental change, an ironclad bond between male humans and female lamia...

[NEXT PART]